• Green-Climate Czar Quits Obama.
• 242^nd State of the Union: Third Wheel On a Hot Date.
• Iran Snookers Obama Takes Over Lebanon
• Empire State Building’s 31^st Suicide Since 1931 Opening
• Illinois Board of Election Tells Appeals Court to go to hell and puts Rahm Emanuel’s Name Back on Mayoral Ballot
• Contraband CellPhones Threats In Prisons
• Absurdly Soda Pot Is Here
• Double Dip In Housing Prices Drop

 As much of the nation disappeared under a fresh coat of ice and snow amid sub zero weather it was yet another of those 72 degree, blue sky, cloudless beautiful days here in Santa Barbara.. Were it not for double digit unemployment clouding everything things would be dandy-California must learn you can not eat sunshine anad gets it collective head out of thye space where sun never shines.

White House energy and climate Czar Carol Browner plans to step down, officials confirmed to Fox News, marking the latest change-up at the highest levels of the Obama administration.

Browner was able to bludgeon car makers for tough standards but, failed to convince Congress to support other parts of Obama’s green plan. Browner would have had no chance of advancing Obama’s ideology with a new Republican house. So she quit.

Police in Austria are looking for a bank robber who wears a Barack Obama mask while committing robberies. He started out with a Sarah Palin mask, but no one took him seriously.– Leno

With his hair freshly touched up Obama delivered an unremarkable State of the Union (SOTU) speech to tepid support Tuesday that further divided an already divided chamber The so-called “Kumbayah” (Gullah, “Come By Here” - “Kum ba yah” SOTU speech saw some Republicans and Demoicrats crossing the aisle for something of an absurdly juvenile ‘date night” as a silly symbol of faux unity.

The CBO kept its mouth shut about a $1.5 trillion deficit in the coming year until after Obama’s SOTU speech. It is the biggest deficit in history lest the new further cloud Obama’s effort at optimism.

 Obama could not resist calling America a Christian-Muslim nation any more than anti-2^nd Amendement types could resist lamenting he dd not call for more gun control.

Three conservative members of the Supreme Court - Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito - boycotted President Obama’s State of the Union address one year after Obama castigated the court in his address to Congress.

Obama spent a lot of time on “green” things desperate to convince America  his vision is more than the ideological hallucination .He called for reducing corporate tax rates - the highest on earth which he could do with the stroke of a pen at anytime. Every theme was a retread from last year.although he ignored any application.

In two year’s Obama has overseen more than 100,000 new regulations on American businesses.

Obama spoke about reducing regulations which clearly disagreed with Rep Henry Waxman (D) California who looking like he was smelling something bad..

 The boogie man is the grim fact that now just 47% of Americans have a fulltime job even though twice that many want one, and the biggest job growth remain in government bureacratcs despite last year SOTU to change that. If he tried to do that he failed, if he did not try he’s failed. Looming large over everything is Obama’s abject failure internationaly as the next article alarmingly shows.

Tuesday’s was the 242 SOTU message although 5  were technically not SOTU messages.

 President’s Reagan, Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama) addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after their inaugurations but those messages are actually not considered to be “State of the Union” addresses.

 Reagan’s 1981 address is called, “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Program for Economic Recovery.”  Bush’s 1989 and Clinton’s 1993 messages are called “Administration Goals” speeches.  G.W. Bush’s 2001 speech is actually his “Budget Message,” and President Obama delivered a similar non-State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009. For research purposes, it is probably harmless to categorize these as State of the Union messages since the impact of such a speech on public, media, and congressional perceptions of presidential leadership and power should be the same as if the address was an official State of the Union.  

The average SOTU is one hour and six minutes. The longest ever was delivered by Bill Clinton who droned on for 90-interminable minutes.

 The message is actually stipulated in the U. S. Constriction under - Article II, Section 3 -that says -.

He (the President) shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

While not required to be a speech, every president since Woodrow Wilson has made the State of the Union report as a speech delivered before a joint session of Congress. Before that time, most presidents delivered the State of the Union as a written report.

George Washington gave the first State of the Union address on January 8, 1790 in New York City, then the provisional U.S. capital. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, regarding it as too monarchical (similar to the Speech from the Throne).

Prior to 1934, the annual message was delivered at the end of the calendar year, in December. The ratification of the 20th Amendment on January 23, 1933 changed the opening of Congress from early March to early January, affecting the delivery of the annual message. Since 1934, the message or address has been delivered to Congress in January or February. Today, the speech is typically delivered on the last Wednesday in January, although there is no such provision written in law, and it varies from year to year. In 2008, the speech was given on the last Monday of January.

The 20^th Amendment establishes the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices. It also deals with scenarios in which there is no President-elect. The Twentieth Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933.

Pollster Frank Luntz found scant satisfaction with Obama after his SOTU speech with some saying Obama has not accomplished any of his promises. Luntz likened Obama to a third wheel on a hit date.

Liberals have taken it upon themselves to find defrocked MSNBC’s Keith Olderman a new job: as the senator from Connecticut replacing Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent and legislative titan who announced his retirement last week. The clown Al Franken has already lowered the Senate so Olberman can not do much more harm in that wallow.

The two days Iran’s new foreign minister Ali Salehi spent in Damascus from Saturday night, Jan. 22, were enough to keep Syrian president Bashar Assad in place for Tehran’s final steps in its grab for Lebanon: installing Najib Mikati at the head of a puppet government there..

He is committed to disqualify the Hariri tribunal as his first order of business. Pro-West Saad Hariri’s supporters rally Tuesday as the US, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia stand aside.

A parliamentary majority had been put together to install as prime minister Najib Mikati, a 55-year old Lebanese tycoon, who was willing to pledge in advance to cut Beirut’s ties with the UN tribunal - STL - investigating the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri and declare its summonses and rulings null and void.

By a single stroke, therefore, Tehran has checked one of Obama’s most critical Middle East policy moves, one which hinged on support for the Hariri tribunal and the strengthening of a pro-West administration in Beirut. Instead, Washington wakes up to find an Iranian puppet ruling Lebanon. Tehran accomplished this two days after fatally stalling the world powers’ attempt to bring Iran around to a diplomatic resolution of its drive toward a nuclear bomb. In two days of talks with six powers in Istanbul, ending Friday, Jan. 21, the Iranian delegation refused to budge an inch.

The tacit fall of Lebanon gravely raises the threat to Israel by ensuring Hezbollah a northern bases and unlimited arms from Iran via Syria making war more likely.

Coincidentally Egyptians are rioting for a more independent government. At this wirintg it is unclear if or how much is outside agitation. Egypt receives more U. S. taxpayer aid than any other nation./o; ideologue.

Vice President Joe Biden was called for jury duty. He can get out of it if he can convince the judge that his presence at his job is essential. So he’s going to jury duty — Leno

The man who plunged to his death in an apparent suicide jump off the Empire State building this week was a junior from Yale University.

The 21-year -old jumped from the 86th floor Tuesday. That floor has an observation deck open to the public.

He was dead when rescue workers arrived at the 102-story skyscraper shortly before 6:30 p.m.

Yale university, that had another student suicide in a plunge from a bridge just 3-weeks ago, said in a statement that it was extending support to the student’s family and friends, and making counselors available.

The Empire State Building is the third-tallest building in the United States. More than 30 people have committed suicide at the building since it opened in 1931. The most recent was believed to have been in 2006.

New York Mayor Bloomberg wants to pass a law to make food carts serve healthier foods. He’s trying to reduce the cholesterol of the rats. - Letterman

Things are so bad that the Chicago mafia has had to lay off so many judges that the Federal Appeals court ruled against Rahm Emanuel ordering that his name be removed from the Mayoral ballot next February.

Emanuel who has already raised $10 million says he will appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. Because of this already stressed “Land of Lincoln” taxpayers and the Illinois state budget will take a big beating. The election board says it will print ballots and set up voting machines without Emanuel’s name but will reprint and reprogram if the appeals court decision is overturned. IThen in n a purely political move that has many hooting and hollering about Chicago style the Chicago Board of Elections decided Thursday that the former White House chief of staff should appear on the ballot in February’s mayoral election, despite the fact that he has spent most of the last two years living in Washington. A bet the Supreme Court will side with Rahm.

“Politics” is being charged against a seven-member panel headed by Justice Anne Burke, the wife of Chicago City Alderman Ed Burke (14th).

That relationship is raising the specter of political influence because of Ald. Burke’s friendship with Emanuel’s rival Gery Chico, but Burt Odelson, the attorney leading the challenge to Emanuel’s candidacy, denies any issue.

Chicago is notorious for political corruption and rigged elections. What’s unusual in this case is that the worm has turned against insider Rahm.

In+ related news the powerful Chicago police union withheld its endorsement of Rahm endorsing Gery despite reportedly heavy pressure. Obama quickly chimed in called the Appeals Court ruling wrong and saying Rahm is qualified to run for Chicago Mayor and would make a great mayor. Emmanuel’s campaign has already filed an appeal to the Supreme court. But, that’s not necessary now.

A doctored photo in a Spanish language newspaper’s January 6 edition in Georgia has kicked up a big red clay dust cloud there. It shows Republican Gov. Nathan Deal wearing a Nazi uniform, a swastika armband and a Hitler-like mustache. Its editor says the doctored photo is justified because it gets attention and delivers the message even to those who do not read Spanish. Observers calls it dangerous hate mongering.

 Deal has tightened the screws on illegal immigrants backing an Arizona-like bill.

 A Smartphone hidden under a mattress is the modern-day file inside a cake.

A counterfeiter at a Georgia state prison ticks off the remaining days of his three-year sentence on his Face book page. He has 91 digital “friends.” Like many of his fellow inmates, he plays the online games FarmVille and Street Wars using a contraband cellphone.

He does it all on a Samsung smartphone, which he says he bought from a guard. And he used the same phone to help organize a strike among inmates at several Georgia prisons last month.

“The smartphone is the most lethal weapon you can get inside a prison,” said Terry L. Bittner, director of security products with the ITT Corporation, one of a handful of companies that create cellphone-detection systems for prisons. “The smartphone is the equivalent of the old Swiss Army knife. You can do a lot of other things with it.”

The Georgia prison strike, for instance, was about things prisoners often complain about including: they are not paid for their labor; visitation rules are too strict, and Meals are bad.

But the technology they used to voice their concerns was new.

Inmates punched in text messages and assembled e-mail lists to coordinate simultaneous protests, including work stoppages, with inmates at other prisons. Under pseudonyms, they shared hour-by-hour updates with followers on Facebook and Twitter. They communicated with their advocates, conducted news media interviews and monitored coverage of the strike.

In Oklahoma, a convicted killer was caught in November posting photographs on his Facebook page of drugs, knives and alcohol that had been smuggled into his cell. In 2009, gang members in a Maryland prison were caught using their smartphones to approve targets for robberies and even to order seafood and cigars. For less that $100 cellular service can be blocked to any building and less with a cooperating cellular provider. Correctional officers unions object sayting it impedes officer rights.

SNIRT is a new word describing a mixture of snow and dirt more accurately describing what easterners used to affectionately call “slush” the ugly, dirty melted snow that piles up in gutters and on roadsides.

Here’s what medical marijuana ‘patients’ may look forward to: $12 sodas with a whallop of THC ˌtɛtrəˌhaɪdrɵkəˈnæbɨnɒl/ tet-rə-HYE-drə-kə-NAB-i-nol )the intoxicant in marijuana.

Soon, patients who have been prescribed medical marijuana can take their medicines in the form of soft drinks that carry such brand names as Canna Cola, Doc Weed, and Orange Kush, according to a feature on Medical News Today.

Canna Cola is being marketed by Diavolo Brands. Its founder, Scott Riddell, revealed that THC dosage in the beverage will be “somewhere between 35 to 65 milligrams.” Riddell added further that the THC levels in their soft drink line are lower than those of other drinks in the market, and likened their products to that of “light beer,” when compared with other high-proof alcoholic beverages.

Oprah announced that she has found her half sister, who was given up for adoption as a child. Then, so no one would feel left out, Oprah gave everyone in the audience their own half sister. — Conan

A “double dip” in home prices appears to be underway in the nation’s biggest cities, jeopardizing the stalled U.S. economic recovery.

The widely followed Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index, which tracks the real estate market in 20 major U.S. cities, showed that prices dropped 1.6% in November from the same month a year earlier, the second consecutive year-over-year decline. What’s more, the index fell 1% in November from October, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline.

Last year, a recovery in housing prices seemed to be on track. But analysts now say that that improvement was juiced by home-buying tax credits that have now expired. In addition, unemployment has remained stubbornly high and millions of Americans are still at risk of foreclosure.

A second slide in home prices would act as a drag on the economic recovery - and stand in sharp contrast to other downturns. During the real estate crash of the 1990s, for example, prices slowly but steadily improved from their bottoms.

“It is going to be a rocky bottom, where we bounce around,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com, a real estate information site. And, after that, “it is likely that real estate appreciation won’t keep up with inflation.”

The Case-Shiller Index, released Tuesday, showed that nine cities - Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Portland, Seattle and Tampa - hit fresh bottoms, falling to the lowest levels since prices peaked in 2006 and 2007.

California’s coastal cities and the nation’s capital were the only apparent bright spots in the report, with Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington showing year-over-year gains. But when measured month to month, the index declined for every city except San Diego, which inched up 0.1% in November from October.

The performance of the California cities in the index doesn’t reflect the state’s hardest-hit markets, in the Inland Empire and Central Valley. Other recent home price measures show the market slumping statewide. The state’s median home price declined 3.8% in December, according to research firm MDA DataQuick, marking the third consecutive year-over-year decrease after 11 straight months of gains .

Bar codes are everywhere on everything. The first three numerals announce where the product was made as in: If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691  or 692, the product is  MADE IN  CHINA. 471 is Made in  Taiwan .By the way this includes foods.